Cartoon detectives: how Australia's most famous cartoon was lost and found - twice

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Cartoon detectives: how Australia's most famous cartoon was lost and found - twice A man hangs, precariously, high above the street, holding onto the girder of an unfinished skyscraper. Around his ankles, a second man holds on for dear life. This is no scene of drama, but hilarity. The second man has pulled down the first’s pants in his desperation to hold onto life, and is lost in laughter. Grimacing, the first man growls: Continued here

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Apple Is Finally Testing A Feature That Could Upend This $125 Billion Industry The company is preparing to roll out its own 'buy now pay later' service as a part of Apple Pay. Continued here

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'Why Can't I Change?' The 16 Voices in Your Head Stopping You From Reaching Your Dreams Finally changing your life isn't about more willpower. It's about identifying the voices in your head sabotaging your efforts. Continued here

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Helping Doctors Make Better Decisions With Data: UC Berkeley’s Ziad Obermeyer When Ziad Obermeyer was a resident in an emergency medicine program, he found himself lying awake at night worrying about the complex elements of patient diagnoses that physicians could miss. He subsequently found his way to data science and research and has since coauthored numerous papers on algorithmic bias and the use of AI and machine learning in predictive analytics in health care. Ziad joins Sam Ransbotham and Shervin Khodabandeh to talk about his career trajectory and highlight some of the potentially breakthrough research he has conducted that's aimed at preventing death from cardiac events, preventing Alzheimer's disease, and treating other acute and chronic conditions. Dr. Ziad Obermeyer works at the intersection of machine learning and health. He is an associate professor and the Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Berkeley; a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator; and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His papers have appeared in a wide range of journals, including Science, Nature Medicine, and The New England Journal of Medicine; his work on algorithmic bias is frequently cited in the public debate about artificial intelligence. He is a cofounder of Nightingale Open Science, a nonprofit that makes massive new medical imaging data sets available for research, and Dandelion, a platform for AI innovation in health. Obermeyer continues to practice emergency medicine in underserved communities. Continued here

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How to Engage Skeptics in Culture Interventions Many executive team members struggle to engage in the problem-solving and strategic decision-making needed in a complex environment. One reason for this is a lack of the psychological safety that makes it possible to offer new information or dissenting views, which directly affects decision quality. An obvious solution is to work on building psychological safety in the team; however, we have found that some executives are skeptical about what they see as “soft” concepts or interventions. Even when most of a group is on board, reluctant individuals — especially those in positions of power — can substantially inhibit psychological safety and, in turn, performance. Fortunately, introducing perspective taking as a skill offers an alternative way to engage skeptics and has been shown to drive performance in diverse teams. Perspective describes how an individual perceives their reality or a specific issue. Our perspective on any matter develops through the accumulated experiences of life — such as education, upbringing, and social context — and past experiences dealing with similar topics. In the workplace, our unique role, affiliation, and hierarchical position shape our perception of a topic, opportunity, or challenge. Teams of people with different backgrounds, diverse experiences, and multiple competencies will have a wider variety of perspectives than more homogeneous groups. Long known as a crucial skill for innovation and negotiations, perspective taking occurs when an individual actively attempts to step outside their own perspective to envision another person’s viewpoint, motivation, and emotions. The power of perspective taking is that its approach of curious inquiry asks people to do the mental work of imagining another’s viewpoint. When we believe someone we disagree with is making a genuine effort to understand how we see an issue, we are more willing to share honest, detailed information. In this way, introducing perspective taking is a good way to build psychological safety while strengthening the skills required for a group to solve problems together. Continued here

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The adults celebrating child-free lives In one of Marcela Munoz’s most recent videos, the 27-year-old dances in a sunny park, wearing denim shorts and high tops. This carefree, untethered social-media post is the embodiment of her mission to celebrate her child-free lifestyle. As the owner of Childfree Millennial TikTok, Instagram and YouTube accounts, Munoz is one of a growing number of influencers producing content designed to validate why they never want to have kids. “The number-one thing that I always say when people ask me why I'm child-free – it's because I don't have a desire to have children,” says Munoz, a small-business owner from Kansas, US. She also believes kids would interfere with her passions for spontaneous travel, football training and regular lie-ins. In one of her other recent posts, she jokes, “if you have baby fever take a nap, if you enjoyed that nap don’t have kids”. “I can't tell you how many times my [parent] friends are like ‘Oh my gosh, I only got two hours of sleep last night, my kids were throwing up and I had to take care of that,'” says Munoz. “That doesn't sound appealing to me at all!” Continued here

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Alice Waters: Food revolutionary In 1971, Alice Waters opened the US' first farm-to-table restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkely, California. More than 50 years later, the legendary chef, author and slow food advocate continues to be at the vanguard of change, and her influence has spread across the world. I met with Waters to talk to her about how she came to define – and continues to expand – her role as an advocate for sustainable farming, as well as her passion for food education. Continued here

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Five ways to be calm - and why it matters Is calmness a passive state of being, involving numbing oneself to what's really going on? Is it in some cases unnatural – sociopathic even? Or is a sense of tranquillity one of the greatest qualities we can have? Here are five ideas about calmness, from the philosophy of serenity, to the music, art and poetry that can make us feel peaceful – and how to find our "flow". "Stay calm and serene regardless of what life throws at you," advised the Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Sounds easier said than done, you would think. But in fact, the Stoic Aurelius had a knack for making calmness seem easy to achieve.  Continued here

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Your Place or Mine: Is the romcom truly back? "If you think about what society as a whole is currently obsessed with, it always leads back to nostalgia. We have not been able to shake it," Bianca Betancourt, culture editor of Harper's Bazaar US, tells BBC Culture. From TV reboots like HBO Max's recently-cancelled Gossip Girl, to Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's 2022 nuptials, Ugg boots, velour tracksuits and low-rise jeans apparently coming back into fashion, Paris Hilton singing her 2006 hit Stars are Blind to ring in the New Year, and the public re-evaluation of how women like Britney Spears were once treated, popular culture is particularly fixated with the early 2000s right now. More like this: – The Last of Us is a 'remarkable' show – The reinvention of the murder mystery – The 90s cop show that changed TV Continued here

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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: The worst Marvel film yet It's a rule of superhero movies that they must culminate in an overlong action sequence, with bodies and weapons crashing around everywhere. Now imagine if that sequence were the whole movie, but with unsuspenseful, drab-looking action. There you have Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the latest and possibly lamest instalment in the usually reliable Marvel Cinematic Universe. The heart of Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) was Paul Rudd as everyman Scott Lang, who puts on his special suit and shrinks into the minuscule Ant-Man – or as I like to think of him, The Littlest Avenger. This third film throws all that away. The character is no more than a prop in a plot that sets up the next big Marvel villain, and does it without a jolt of energy. More like this: – 11 films to watch this February – The historical roots of the multiverse – Do we really need superheros still? Continued here

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Scandals can end congressional careers - which is why the Office of Congressional Ethics regularly faces attempts to rein it in Members of Congress can have their reputations damaged when caught up in a scandal, as media coverage surrounding George Santos for apparently lying about his resume and possibly violating campaign finance laws demonstrates. Scandals can end congressional careers. So lawmakers may want to reduce scrutiny of their behavior. And yet members of Congress have at times voted to make themselves subject to even more scrutiny. Continued here

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My art uses plastic recovered from beaches around the world to understand how our consumer society is transforming the ocean I am obsessed with plastic objects. I harvest them from the ocean for the stories they hold and to mitigate their ability to harm. Each object has the potential to be a message from the sea – a poem, a cipher, a metaphor, a warning. My work collecting and photographing ocean plastic and turning it into art began with an epiphany in 2005, on a far-flung beach at the southern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii. At the edge of a black lava beach pounded by surf, I encountered multitudes upon multitudes of plastic objects that the angry ocean was vomiting onto the rocky shore. Continued here

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How do blood tests work? Medical laboratory scientists explain the pathway from blood draw to diagnosis and treatment Medical laboratory testing is the heartbeat of medicine. It provides critical data for physicians to diagnose and treat disease, dating back thousands of years. Unfortunately, laboratory medicine as a field is poorly understood by both the public and health care communities. Laboratory medicine, also known as clinical pathology, is one of two main branches of pathology, or the study of the causes and effects of disease. Pathology covers many laboratory areas, such as blood banking and microbiology. Clinical pathology diagnoses a disease through laboratory analysis of body fluids such as blood, urine, feces and saliva. The other branch of pathology, anatomic pathology, diagnoses a disease by examining body tissues. Continued here

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Five years after Parkland shooting, a school psychologist offers insights on helping students and teachers deal with grief Whenever a school shooting takes place, school officials often arrange for grief counseling services to be made available for whoever needs them. But what exactly do those services entail? To answer that question, The Conversation reached out to Philip J. Lazarus, a school psychology professor at Florida International University who counseled students and educators affected by the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which took place in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day, 2018. Continued here

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What is Mondiacult? 6 take-aways from the world's biggest cultural policy gathering Culture’s status in global society got a major boost in 2022 when it was recommended to become its own sustainable development goal. This happened at the Unesco World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development – called Mondiacult. The world’s most important cultural policy gathering took place in Mexico City 40 years after its first edition in the same city. The 2022 meeting gathered 2,600 participants including 135 government ministers, 83 non-governmental organisations, 32 intergovernmental organisations and nine UN agencies. Mondiacult is important because it’s a decision-making meeting that helps shape the world’s cultural policies and especially the relationship between culture and development. What was clear is that there is a shift in this relationship. Culture does not only contribute to sustainable development but is one of development’s components. Continued here

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Zimbabwe's budget plans open door for growth. But only if high interest rates don't derail them When Zimbabwe’s finance minister Mthuli Ncube presented the national budget for 2023 to Parliament in November 2022, he placed high emphasis on a raft of initiatives designed to spur strong economic growth and unleash economic transformation. These included financing of infrastructure projects, education, health, value chains and other public investments. At that time, Ncube’s budget plans ran the risk of being derailed by ultra-high interest rates which had led to a spike in the cost of borrowing for businesses and consumers. Continued here

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When two elephants fight: how the global south uses non-alignment to avoid great power rivalries An African proverb notes that “when two elephants fight, it is the grass underneath that suffers”. Many states in the global south are, therefore, seeking to avoid getting caught in the middle of any future battles between the US and China. Instead, they are calling for a renewal of the concept of non-alignment. This was an approach employed in the 1950s by newly independent countries to balance between the two ideological power blocs of east and west during the era of the Cold War Continued here

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Al-Shabaab attacks in Somalia affect communities as far as 900km away - aid agencies need to take note Policymakers tend to assume that the effects of conflict are felt only where violence occurs. As a result, humanitarian aid, protection efforts or asylum policies largely focus on conflict-hit areas. The World Health Organisation, for instance, provides emergency medical supplies in areas directly affected by violence. The UN Refugee Agency ties protection status to residing in areas hit by conflict. Continued here

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What is gene editing and how could it shape our future? It is the most exciting time in genetics since the discovery of DNA in 1953. This is mainly due to scientific breakthroughs including the ability to change DNA through a process called gene editing. The potential for this technology is astonishing – from treating genetic diseases, modifying food crops to withstanding pesticides or changes in our climate, or even to bring the dodo “back to life”, as one company claims it hopes to do. Continued here

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The British aristocracy: how gossipy memoirs feed national fascination with privileged elites They don’t dominate parliament, they don’t own Twitter and they don’t star in big Hollywood movies. Yet the British aristocracy’s capacity to intrigue and enthral seems boundless. The continuing popularity of the TV and film series Downton Abbey, Evelyn Waugh’s upper-crust novel Brideshead Revisited and Nancy Mitford’s autobiographical The Pursuit of Love underscore the popular appetite for all things aristocratic. Continued here

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'When he's not on drugs, he's a good person' - one community's story of meth use and domestic violence It just said ‘BOOM! Get up’ and I got up and was like, ‘where’s my son?’ and I run to the bathroom and my little girl’s standing at the sink and I could see the water running and coming down the hallway and he was already blue at the bottom of the tub. So I grabbed him up and was like, I mean, panic – I couldn’t do nothing but sing ‘Amazing Grace.’ It’s the only thing I knew to do. Misty’s son, one of her five children, survived – he was saved by a neighbour who worked for the ambulance service in their Alabama community. Continued here

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Freedom of speech: Scotland could derail Europe's drive to stop rich people silencing journalists Francesca Farrington has consulted to the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) and the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition.. Justin Borg-Barthet has consulted to the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE), and the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition. Continued here

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Donations by top 50 US donors dropped sharply to $14 billion in 2022 - Bill Gates, Mike Bloomberg and Warren Buffett lead the list of biggest givers The 50 Americans who gave or pledged the most to charity in 2022 committed to giving US$14.1 billion to foundations, universities, hospitals and more – a total that was 60% below an inflation-adjusted $35.6 billion in 2021, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s latest annual tally of these donations. The Conversation U.S. asked David Campbell, Elizabeth Dale and Michael Moody, three scholars of philanthropy, to assess the significance of these gifts and to consider what this data indicates about the state of charitable giving in the United States. Continued here

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By policing history, Poland's government is distorting the Holocaust In January 2018, the Polish parliament passed a law that imposed prison terms of up to three years of anyone who claimed Poles had any responsibility for or complicity in crimes committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. The law was intended to silence historians, and indeed, it has created a chilling atmosphere within academia and beyond. Continued here

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De La Soul's Trugoy The Dove was a true musical disruptor who broke the hip-hop mould David Jude Jolicoeur (better known as Trugoy The Dove and Plug 2), who has died at the age of 54, was a music disruptor who changed the sound and look of rap and hip-hop in the late 80s and 90s. I first heard his voice on DJ John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show in 1988. It was on De La Soul’s debut single Plug Tunin’ (Are You Ready For This). Like many teenagers back then, my finger was ready on the pause button to record any new hip-hop music from radio shows. Continued here

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Grayson Perry's Full English shows why England's regions are crucial to its identity In his Channel 4 series, Full English, artist Grayson Perry travels around England in a white van searching for an answer to the question: “Is there a viable version of England and Englishness that will feed my soul?” What Perry discovers in his encounters with people from across the country, is a version of Englishness that draws on a subjective sense of local or regional identity, rather than a uniform idea of the nation. Continued here

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Earthquake in Turkey exposes gap between seismic knowledge and action -- but it is possible to prepare Two days after a devastating earthquake struck, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited one of the worst affected areas and declared that it was “not possible to be prepared for such a disaster.” Certainly the scale of the destruction was unforeseen. The death toll from the earthquakes of Feb. 6, 2023, that struck Turkey and northern Syria is still climbing. But one week on, it has been documented that over 35,000 people were killed, with more than 50,000 injured and over 1,000,000 receiving aid for survival in bitter cold conditions. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit while many were sleeping in the town of Pazarcık in Kahramanmaraş, southern Turkey – the epicenter of the quake. It was followed nine hours later by a major aftershock in Elbistan, a town about 50 miles from the initial quake, sending buildings weakened in the first shock to total collapse. Continued here

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Global inequality must fall to maintain a safe climate and achieve a decent standard of living for all - it's a huge challenge Energy consumption is essential for human wellbeing, but there is enormous inequality in energy use worldwide. The top 10% of global energy consumers use roughly 30 times more energy than the bottom 10%. Our energy use also drives climate change. So to maintain a safe climate, we may have to use less energy in the future. Achieving this while ensuring that everyone enjoys a decent standard of living may require drastic reductions in global energy inequality. Continued here

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Why craft beer fosters better communities than its corporate competitors Craft beer is big business. In 2021, craft beer sales in the US (the biggest beer market by sales) totaled US$26.8 billion (£22 billion) and represented 13.1% of overall sales of beer. And it’s a growing market. In 2015 there were 4,803 craft breweries in the US, by 2021 there were 9,118. The number of UK craft breweries, in that same period grew from 1,527 to 1,755. While the sales and growth are impressive, what matters more is what these figures represent – a growing interest in a superior quality beer from both producers and consumers. Continued here

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How to cope when you lose access to a digital world you love US games developer Blizzard Activision has become embroiled in worldwide litigation relating to its proposed acquisition by Microsoft. It has also fallen out with its Chinese distributor NetEase. This might sound like news for the business pages only. But it has had tangible, real-world consequences. The developer’s flagship product is World of Warcraft, one of the most successful massively multiplayer online (MMO) games of all time. Across the globe, over 125 million players are estimated to have, at one time or other, come to call the land of Azeroth – the setting of the game – a home of sorts. As of late January 2023, however, the estimated three million people who play the game in China have lost all access to it. Continued here

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Local journalism is under threat at a time when communities need more inclusive reporting The future of local newspapers is under threat, according to parliament’s digital, culture, media & sport committee (DCMS) report released last month. This report into the sustainability of local journalism comes at a time when public trust in the national media is falling, while online disinformation, polarisation and hatred towards minorities continues to rise. Continued here

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Fear and loathing in New Zealand: an overdue examination of our 'underworld of extremists' is valuable but flawed Programme Director, Master of Conflict and Terrorism Studies, University of Auckland Since the horrific attacks in Christchurch in 2019 there has been substantial and growing attention paid to the extreme right in New Zealand. The pandemic – and the conspiracy theories and anti-government sentiment that developed in response – increased that scrutiny, and the sense of unease or alarm many felt about it. Continued here

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Spy balloons: modern technology has given these old-fashioned eyes in the sky a new lease of life The US military has now shot down four high-altitude objects that had entered American and Canadian airspace, raising questions about their purpose and origin. The first of these objects, a Chinese balloon, was downed by a fighter jet on 4 February. While China says it was for weather monitoring, US officials say it was being used for surveillance. A knowledge of technology in this area throws up some clues about what may have been going on. Continued here

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Ontario Liberals are down but far from out when it comes to ruling the province The last two elections have not been kind to the Ontario Liberals, constituting the party’s worst electoral performances since 1943. This string of defeats has produced soul-searching among partisans and political pundits that tends to ensue when a major party loses power. Yet this time, there’s also an atmosphere of existential dread. Continued here

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The rise of ChatGPT shows why we need a clearer approach to technology in schools ChatGPT and its powerful capacity to generate original text has taken the education sector by surprise. Not only are universities hurrying to adapt to it, schools are also grappling with this new technology. NSW and most other states blocked the tool in public schools, to protect students from possible misinformation and curb cheating. But South Australia has allowed use of ChatGPT, in part so students can better learn and understand the potential and risks of artificial intelligence. Continued here

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Curious Kids: why do we think there is a possible Planet X? Our Solar System is a pretty busy place. There are millions of objects moving around – everything from planets, to moons, to comets and asteroids. And each year we’re discovering more and more objects (usually small asteroids or speedy comets) that call the Solar System home. Astronomers had found all eight of the main planets by 1846. But that doesn’t stop us from looking for more. In the past 100 years we’ve found smaller distant bodies we call dwarf planets, which is what we now classify Pluto as. Continued here

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Future home havens: Australians likely to use more energy to stay in and save money Many are adding air conditioning, air filtration, pools, spas, heated outdoor entertaining areas and bar fridges. They are adding or renovating sheds and outdoor areas to create extra living space. All these changes increase their energy use. Read more: Older Australians on the tough choices they face as energy costs set to increase Continued here

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'Forever chemicals' have made their way to farms. For now, levels in your food are low - They stop your food from sticking to the pan. They prevent stains in clothes and carpets. They help firefighting foam to extinguish fires. But the very thing that makes “forever chemicals” so useful also makes them dangerous. Forever chemicals – the catchier name for the class of chemicals known as PFAS, per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances – don’t break down in the environment. Since we invented and began using them in the 1940s, these chemicals have stuck around, contaminating water and soil. And when they make it into our bodies, they can bind to proteins and accumulate in organs, which may increase your cancer risk or damage your health. Major manufacturers are now facing lawsuits over the potential health impact of the chemicals. Continued here

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How to get your kids to talk about their feelings Dr Christiane Kehoe is co-author on the Tuning in to Kids suite of programs and receives royalties from the sale of the facilitator manuals used by clinicians who deliver the parenting groups. Emotions are core to our human experience, but seeing “negative” emotions in our children – anger, fear, jealousy, envy, sadness, resentment – can make us uncomfortable. Continued here

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'Reade him, therefore; and againe, and againe'. It's the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's First Folio, a monumental project put together by his friends Shakespeare’s First Folio – more accurately known as Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies – was published 400 years ago this November. It is the book that gave us Martin Droeshout’s famous engraved portrait of Shakespeare, and playwright Ben Jonson’s equally famous praise describing him as “not of an age, but for all time”. It remains one of the most iconic and recognisable books in English, with copies sometimes selling for around US$10 million. Continued here

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Secondary crises after the Turkey-Syria earthquakes are now the greatest threat to life The death toll from the Turkey and Syria earthquakes has continued to climb, with more than 37,000 lives lost. This staggering number is likely to grow even higher over coming days as the rubble is cleared. The disaster is now among the top five most deadly earthquakes globally in the past two decades. Much of the focus has centred on the immense loss of life in the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes. But many lives will still be at risk in the months to come. While hard to track, we know from other cases that death tolls rise because of a lack of adequate medical care, clean water and shelter following disasters. Continued here

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As Syrians were trapped beneath the rubble, a broken UN system was held hostage by the Assad regime While international teams poured into Turkey to mount a furious search and rescue effort following the massive earthquake on February 6, the response on the other side of the border in Syria was catastrophically slow. For days, Syrians remained stuck under the rubble in sub-zero temperatures waiting for help. However, the only vehicles that crossed the border from Turkey were trucks ferrying the bodies of the dead home for burial. Continued here

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Why using AI tools like ChatGPT in my MBA innovation course is expected and not cheating I teach managing technological innovation in Simon Fraser University’s Management of Technology MBA program. Thanks to the explosion of generative artificial intelligence, I’m rewriting my 2023 syllabus and assignments. No matter our industry or field, we should regularly review our tools and workflows. New tools, like AI, are excellent triggers for this assessment. Sorting out how best to adjust our work, as per the values and existing norms of different fields, takes a systematic approach. Continued here

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Michigan State murders: What we know about campus shootings and the gunmen who carry them out Ph.D. student in Criminal Justice and Creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database, University of Central Florida A gunman opened fire at Michigan State University on Feb. 13, 2023, killing three people and injuring five others before taking his own life. Continued here

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A national inquiry is needed to address abuse in Canadian sport Sport in Canada is at a crossroads. The ongoing scandal with Hockey Canada highlights the need to take broader societal action to create a safer sport culture. The crisis in sport is rooted in issues of power and control that remain unchecked. There is also a lack of awareness at the least, and neglect or complicity at the worst. In 2022, it came to light that Hockey Canada used internal funds to settle sexual assault allegations. Criticism of how Hockey Canada handled allegations of abuse have prompted an overhaul of the governing body’s leadership, and highlighted the sport system’s failure to foster a safe culture. Continued here

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Israel enters a dangerous period - public protests swell over Netanyahu's plan to limit the power of the Israeli Supreme Court Proposals by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government to radically diminish the power and independence of Israel’s judiciary sparked demonstrations across the country starting in January 2023. An estimated 200,000 Israelis took part in protests on Feb. 11 and another 100,000 in front of the Parliament on Feb. 13, the same day a general strike took place to denounce the changes. A statement signed by 18 former Supreme Court justices asserted that Israeli democracy is at stake in the judicial reform being considered by lawmakers, which “severely threatens the essence of our system of government and our way of life in Israel.”The Conversation asked political scientist and Israel expert Dov Waxman, the director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, for his insights into the current crisis. What’s remarkable about these protests is not only the size of them, but the fact that they’ve been able to maintain this size over many weeks and that they’re occurring across the country. Continued here

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Learning about the health risks of vaping can encourage young vapers to rethink their habit Vaping is most prevalent in Canada among 15- to 24-year-olds, and has significantly increased since e-cigarettes with nicotine were legalized in 2018. Ensuring that young people understand the health risks involved may help encourage them to steer clear of vaping. Recent data from Statistics Canada show that more than one-third of teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 have tried vaping, and 15 per cent report having done so within the last 30 days. Of those who reported vaping in last 30 days, approximately 80 per cent had vaped nicotine. Continued here

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UK laundry releases microfibres weighing the equivalent of 1,500 buses each year Around 35% of the microplastics contaminating the world’s oceans come from washing our clothes. When washed, synthetic clothing sheds tiny plastic fragments (typically shorter than 5mm). Known as microfibres, these fragments are a common type of microplastic, and when released pose a serious threat to marine environments. But the scale of microfibre pollution from laundry is poorly understood. The factors affecting microfibre discharge are complex, while these plastic fragments alone are not the only issue. Natural microfibres, such as cotton, are released from fabrics during washing and may also carry an environmental threat. Continued here

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Being declared dead when you're still alive - why these very rare events occur An 82-year-old woman who was recently pronounced dead at a New York nursing home was later discovered to be alive by funeral home staff. This follows a similar incident in Iowa where a 66-year-old woman with early-onset dementia was declared dead by a nurse, only to be found gasping for air when funeral home staff unzipped the body bag. Fortunately, these events are very rare. But fear of them is visceral, which might explain an old naval custom. When sewing the canvas shroud for a dead sailor, the sailmaker would take the last stitch through the nose of the deceased. Having a sailcloth needle through the nose was presumed to be a potent enough stimulus to wake any sailor who was actually still alive. Continued here

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Gambling Act review: how EU countries are tightening restrictions on ads and why the UK should too When the 2005 Gambling Act was drafted the world was very different. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube didn’t exist. Gambling was often seen as a shady activity typically conducted in smoky high-street betting shops. You certainly couldn’t use a smartphone to gamble 24/7 with a couple of clicks. Aware of these changes, in 2019 the UK government announced a review to ensure that the Gambling Act was “fit for the digital age”. The government recently called the review a priority but has not announced a new date for its publication after announcing a delay in July 2022. Continued here

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Massive outages caused by Cyclone Gabrielle strengthen the case for burying power lines Another extreme weather event has highlighted the weak points in New Zealand’s critical infrastructure. As Cyclone Gabrielle ripped across the North Island, nearly 225,000 people lost power. The cause is relatively obvious: many houses and buildings are connected to the power grid by overground power lines. Overhead wires, a common sight around many suburbs, are highly vulnerable to extreme weather events. When the winds pick up, limbs and trees fall, and power lines are dragged down. Continued here

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Senator Dianne Feinstein will retire in 2024, bringing a groundbreaking career to a close Democrat Dianne Feinstein, the 89-year-old senior senator from California, announced on Feb. 14, 2023, that she will retire from the Senate rather than run for a sixth term when her current term expires at the end of 2024. This will bring an end to an extraordinary political career, one that began when Feinstein won her first election only a few months after Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon. Continued here

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Liberals likely to win Aston byelection; Voice support increases in Essential poll Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne On February 9, Liberal Alan Tudge announced he would resign from politics, setting up a byelection in his Victorian seat of Aston. A date for the byelection is still to be determined. Continued here

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Why do men who kill their families still receive sympathetic news coverage? As the number of mass shootings in the United States this year continues to grow, so too have family murder-suicides. It is only February, and already at least three families have been shot and killed by men who took their own lives afterwards, following a string of similar such killings in 2022. Although gun control is sometimes talked about, the coverage often points to other causes – mental illness or the acts of violent men. Sometimes, they are simply portrayed as mysteries. Continued here

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Could buccal massage - the latest celebrity beauty trend - make you look older, not younger? Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, reportedly had it before marrying Prince Harry. Jennifer Lopez is also apparently a fan. We’re talking about a type of facial called a “buccal massage”. But what exactly is a buccal massage? Does it really sculpt the face, as claimed? Are there risks? Could it actually make your skin look “looser” and older? Continued here

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'The unlooked-for and idiosyncratic was her stock-in-trade': last words from the unclassifiable Janet Malcolm Janet Malcolm, who died in 2021 at the age of 86, left her readers this “memoir”, Still Pictures, an apt and fascinating coda to a celebrated and provocative life’s work. As a young girl, Malcolm fled Nazism with her Czech-Jewish family on one of the last boats to sail for America. Her father was a psychiatrist, her mother a lawyer, and her work is filled with the kind of attention to people, language and the “truth” that a child might inherit from such professionals, with their specific personal history. Continued here

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Hogwarts Legacy's game mechanics reflect the gender essentialism at the heart of Harry Potter The controversial and keenly anticipated open-world role-playing game Hogwarts Legacy was released a week ago, and reviews have been mixed. Some have praised the sweeping expanses of Hogwarts castle and its surrounds, and others have criticised its stagnant loot-collection mechanics. Much of the discourse has centred on tensions and expression around gender. The game has been subject to controversy regarding the anti-trans remarks made by the Wizarding World franchise’s creator, Harry Potter series author JK Rowling. Continued here

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Snakes can hear you scream, new research reveals Experts have long understood that snakes can feel sound vibrations through the ground – what we call “tactile” sensing – but we’ve puzzled over whether they can also hear airborne sound vibrations, and particularly over how they react to sounds. In a new paper published in PLOS ONE, we conclude snakes use hearing to help them interpret the world, and finally dispel the myth that snakes are deaf to airborne sound. Continued here

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Always Something There to Remind Me The Martini & Rossi voice was real, a kind of breathy huskiness with a little hesitation behind it. That hesitation suggested not shyness but invitation. Might you listen to me? Just for a moment? He didn’t attack notes so much as glide over them, like a skater going around and around the ice in lovely circles. Burt Bacharach, who died on February 8th, might have been the first to say that he wasn’t a great singer, not a superlative vocalist in the way that any number of the extraordinary women he helped become stars were, Dionne Warwick being the most obvious example. Rather, he learned, I think, from working with performers like Marlene Dietrich, whose musical director he was for six years during the mid-nineteen-fifties and early sixties. It would be impossible not to learn from that consummate show woman if you spent enough time with her—she was so precise—and I’m sure that one of the things she taught him was that, if you had a limited instrument, as she did, you could still use it, you could still be expressive and controlled, in a way that listeners would want to tap into. In a 2015 interview, Bacharach said that Dietrich’s music “sucked,” but he liked her. Sometimes she would call him on short notice, and he’d fly to Warsaw for a single show: “I’d walk down the stairs from the plane . . . and she’d be standing there wearing a Dior scarf, with a bottle of vodka, pouring me a drink. Right there in the snow!” These flashes of glamour, Bacharach’s eye for feminine charm, and his ability to listen to female artists, to accept them, and shape them according to their and his specifications are part of what makes Bacharach’s 2013 autobiography, “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” so enjoyable to read, along with the composer’s stories about his perfectionism in the studio and his inability to go the distance when it came to romantic love and family. The title of his memoir refers not only to his early hit of the same name, written with the outstanding lyricist Hal David (Warwick’s 1963 rendition helped make David and Bacharach the go-to guys for what I call existential pop, songwriters who asked real questions about life and love); it also alludes to Bacharach’s own feelings of distance—his relative heartlessness—when it came to his daughter, Nikki. Continued here

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How Erdoğan Set the Stage for Turkey’s Disastrous Earthquake Response Last week, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria, killing more than thirty thousand people and destroying numerous towns and cities in both countries. A monumental recovery effort is necessary, but neither country is well positioned to mount one. For more than a decade, Syria has been fighting a brutal civil war brought on by Bashar al-Assad's dictatorial rule; Turkey, under the Presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been in economic crisis for the past five years, and is increasingly subject to authoritarianism, with crackdowns on journalists and political opponents, and the replacement of key governing figures with Erdoğan's friends and family. There has been extensive criticism within Turkey over the pace of the recovery effort, which is being overseen by the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD)—itself run by someone with little experience in the field. Moreover, Erdoğan has been in power for two decades—first as Prime Minister and now as President—during which he has encouraged a huge surge in construction alongside shockingly lax enforcement of safety standards. To understand the connections between Erdoğan's leadership and the tragedy unfolding in Turkey, I recently spoke by phone with Jenny White, a social anthropologist and professor emerita at Stockholm University's Institute for Turkish Studies. She is the author of many books about politics, religion, and nationalism in Turkey. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed how Erdoğan's governing style and policies have hindered the earthquake response, why his approach to Turkey's Kurdish population has made the crisis especially dire in Kurdish areas, and what the crisis could mean for Turkey's upcoming election. Continued here

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Bernie Sanders’s New Campaign: Taking On Big Pharma and Starbucks When I interviewed Senator Bernie Sanders, during one afternoon last week, he'd had a busy day. In the morning, he had presided over his first hearing as the chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, his old-school Brooklyn accent ringing out across the hearing room. At lunchtime, he held a press conference with a group of labor-union officials to demand paid sick leave for railway workers, a cause he has long championed. Speaking from his office, he told me he was amped up about heading the health committee, a position previously held by Senator Patty Murray, of Washington. "I think the first thing we have to do is to talk to the American people about what is going on in our economy, and that is something Congress or the media does not do very often," Sanders said. Then he went into a familiar spiel, similar to the ones he delivered in 2016 and 2020, about how the American health-care system is "dysfunctional and broken," nearly twice as costly as the systems in other industrialized countries, yet leaving eighty-five million Americans uninsured or underinsured. "Meanwhile," he went on, "the insurance companies make tens of billions a year in profit." Sanders also castigated Big Pharma, noting that, earlier in the day, he had spoken to someone from Finland, who had told him that drug prices in that country were, in some cases, a tenth of the prices in the United States. "So we have to pick on the incredible greed of the pharmaceutical industry, who make huge profits every year and pay their C.E.O.s huge salaries and compensation packages," he said. "That's something we are going to go into big time." Continued here

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How Do Ukrainians Think About Russians Now? For Ukrainians, the looming first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of their country is a historic milestone within an ongoing tragedy of unprovoked bloodshed, one which seems to be escalating again. But the war’s relentless destruction also poses a more existential question, one which fuels an urgent need to resist and prevail. For centuries, Ukrainians have struggled against Russian cultural dominance. A short respite came with the country’s independence, but then, in 2014, Vladimir Putin’s aggressions began in Crimea, and carried on afterward in the Donbas. The struggle for identity is further complicated by the fact that many Ukrainians grew up in Russian-speaking households. But Putin’s invasion has accelerated a growing sense of a need to reassert a Ukrainian identity once and for all. A few months ago, I joined a group of writers in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, for the twenty-ninth annual Lviv BookForum, which the organizers, this time, in partnership with those of the British Hay Festival, intended to showcase that Ukrainians are as indomitable culturally as they are militarily, notwithstanding the Russian invasion of their country. Then, as now, except for a few missile attacks, Lviv is probably one of the safest places to be in Ukraine, far from the front lines in the east and the south. Even so, rather than taking place in different public locations around the city, as usual, the forum was convened in an underground theatre on the hilltop campus of Ukrainian Catholic University, a ten-minute drive from the city center. There, for three days, panelists addressed topics related to Ukraine, Russia, war, and culture. Continued here

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The Final Frontier of Human Sexuality May Be in Space Above fair Earth is where we lay our scene, where meetings between star-crossed lovers could transcend mere metaphor to become reality. While it’s true that at least one secret couple, Mark Lee and Jan Davis, took to the skies in 1992 aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, the official word from NASA is that none of its astronauts have ever joined the hundreds-of-miles-high club. At least, not yet. Left to peer down at their home planet (or passing stars) in relatively cramped quarters with a handful of crew for months on end, astronauts undergo a form of isolation so profound few ever experience it. Much like Adm. Richard E. Byrd, the 20th century explorer who once spent five months alone in a one-room shack in Antarctica, astronauts who undertake a slow, lonely sojourn to the unknown with no guarantee of return are just as inherently isolated. But such extraordinary isolation doesn’t serve humanity’s seeming goal of being a space-faring civilization. Continued here

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Why Are There Suddenly So Many Unidentified Objects Over U.S. Airspace? In the wake of the Chinese surveillance balloon that flew across continental North America in early February, the U.S. and Canada have experienced a sudden flurry of unidentified flying objects (or unidentified aerial phenomena, if you prefer) in their airspace. These objects appeared in rapid succession over the weekend, with radar detecting one object almost as soon as the last one had been shot down. It’s a bizarre situation that has prompted the White House Press Secretary and leading Air Force generals to publicly field questions about aliens in a much more serious tone than usual. Continued here

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An Understudied Psychedelic Could Be A Promising New Mental Health Treatment In the so-called "psychedelic renaissance," research into one substance has lagged behind the others. Over the past two decades, researchers have published study after study evaluating the therapeutic potential of psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD. The research is so promising that despite being illegal at the federal level, efforts to legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin — a psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms — have passed in two states and a handful of cities. Continued here

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You Need to Watch the Most Game-Changing Time-Travel Movie on HBO Max ASAP In six years, planet Earth will be a quiet wasteland. A charred heap of ash and rubble, the only sounds will come from the hushed whispers of survivors who have been driven underground, and the unfaltering march of the roving death machines tasked with their extermination above. Desperate and outnumbered pockets of resistance fight against a seemingly insurmountable threat, hoping against hope for a single chance to somehow turn back the clock, to strengthen their cause, to rewrite time. So they do. They send back a nightmare: a feverish vision of a metallic skeleton, broken and bent, gripping a knife and dragging itself from the flames of some terrible carnage. And one night in 1982, during the production of Piranha II: The Spawning, their message was received by a young filmmaker named James Cameron. Two years later, his dream changed history. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, The Terminator was born into the world, forever imprinting unshakeable fears about the nature of artificial intelligence and technology onto worldwide audiences, and establishing Cameron as the long-reigning king of cinematic spectacle. Continued here

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What Is ChatGPT and How Do You Use It? With a massive investment from Microsoft and plenty of buzz, now is the time to dive in on OpenAI's chatbot. Gone are the days of SmarterChild — ChatGPT is the new artificially intelligent chatbot in town. Continued here

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'The Last of Us' Reimagined a Key Game Character for the Better Episode 5, “Endure and Survive,” introduced Henry and Sam, who seek Joel and Ellie’s help to escape Kansas City. The brothers also appeared in the game as characters who accompany Joel and Ellie for several levels. But series co-creator Craig Mazin made a few tweaks to Sam, played by Keivonn Woodard in his debut role, that illuminated how adaptations of games should work. Besides making Sam younger than his game counterpart, HBO reimagines Sam as deaf and fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). Continued here

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3 Marvel Movies and Shows to Watch Before 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' If you’re not caught up on all 30 Marvel movies, make sure you see just these before hitting up the Quantum Realm. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is upon us, with its release date of February 17 fast approaching. Once again, the question must be asked: What Marvel movies should I see before it? Continued here

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Matt 'Supes' Ramos Takes Being A Superhero Influencer Very Seriously An afternoon at the Avengers Campus with one of the Marvel fandom’s most popular (and polarizing) content creators. Matt Ramos is standing in line for the Guardians of the Galaxy drop-tower ride at the Disney California Adventure theme park when a young man strikes up a conversation from the other side of the bars. “You are one of my favorite people who love Marvel as much as I do,” he says, introducing himself as J.R. and explaining that he’s an aspiring content creator, too. J.R. is the first of five people to excitedly approach Ramos during our afternoon at the Avengers Campus in Anaheim, California, though many of them seem to only know Ramos’ face, not his name. Continued here